anybody else besides me who has this fish?
I'm talking of course about the TRUE ishmaeli, not the red-yellow striped fish sold as such...

currently I have 4 males and 2 females. odd numbers, but I only got 7 youngsters, one died a long time ago.
They're supposed to be snaileaters. unfortunately they don't eat burrowing snails, and prefer the fishfood anyway, to snails.
here's a pic of a yawning female

This particular beastie is extinct in the wild, since 1985 or so....hence me posting this in conservation.
Anyone else breeding with Vics that are lost in the wild?

"And he piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the rage and hate felt by his whole race. If his chest had been a cannon, he would have shot his heart upon it"
Jean-Luc Picard

I've seen "nest"building too (it should be called "spawnsite-building; as it's a mouthbrooder and doesn't use a proper nesting area); their activities reminded me a LOT about Tanganyikan Featherfins.....

first the male chooses a spot close to a vertical wall, treeroots or rocks (typical; there is a big open area, but no, they won't use that).
this reminds us of Ophtalmotilapia heterodonta or Cunningtonia longiventralis.

then he clears this area of anything larger than fine sandgrains; creating a wall of small pebbles and gravel around a sandpit; about 6" across (like Enantiopus melanogenys does, but smaller!)

next he makes the sandpit into a 1" high, 5-6" wide samndhill (!!); the whole construction looks like a sandhill srrounded by a ditch surrounded by a low wall of gravel...
This is unique behaviour and I haven't seen anything like it!

The result already is there; about a dozen fly-sized baby ishmaeli's are in a breeder; the mom carried about a month, but she kept her babies with her, while being netted and transferred to a breeder. In that breeder, she released them and that about ended the caring; but she didn't bother even a single fry, despite not eating anything for a month.....

As a last: some males are very good builders, others are downright sloppy or lazy and try to take advance of spawning sites that are already there; of course they get into a load of trouble when being spotted by the builder

"And he piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the rage and hate felt by his whole race. If his chest had been a cannon, he would have shot his heart upon it"
Jean-Luc Picard